10 years ago, it seemed that no one had noticed the pain epidemic going on around us. In Australia the figures of those suffering pain and without access to appropriate specialist treatment were astounding. One in five Australians - yes, 20% of us - suffered chronic pain at some point in our lives, including children and adolescents. Figures showed that 3.2 million Australians were living with chronic pain. What's even more alarming is that up to 80% of those with chronic pain missed out on treatment that could have improved their health and quality of life. Back then, Chronic Pain cost the Australian economy an estimated $73 billion per year.

There is no end to the daily hardships encountered by people with chronic pain: the challenges of sceptical friends, family, employers, doctors with little or no training in the diagnosis or management of chronic pain, and long public-hospital waiting lists of up to a year to see a pain specialist, all compounding the burden of the pain itself. The profound effects of chronic pain on quality of life and the shortcomings of existing treatment were obvious. At that time there were no clinics offering a truly holistic approach to managing pain and focusing completely on the patient.

Something needed to be done about this. Our community needed help.

We opened a pain clinic. Our practice was built by specialists and colleagues with shared ideals and values, morals and ethics who were uniquely keen to support each other by sharing knowledge, expertise and experience. There was a common duty of care and dedication to reducing pain and suffering, with an unwavering focus on the person in pain and their family.

Our goal was to never forget that the problem was not just a pain condition, but a real person in pain, with a real life beyond pain that they longed to return to. We felt perfectly placed to do something significant for sufferers of chronic pain.